BREAKING Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
Experts are warning that there appears to be nowhere left on Earth where astronomers can view the stars and planets without light pollution caused by satellites.
Sam Lawler, an associate professor at the University of Regina, says the darkness that astronomers and stargazers rely on is becoming harder to find due to the increase in "very reflective" satellites being sent into low orbit.
"The light pollution from satellites is global -- there's nowhere that you can get away from it," Lawler told CTV's Your Morning on Friday.
Lawler said the satellites causing the most recent problems are those launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet service.
"Just a few satellites is not a problem, but when all of a sudden there are thousands or tens of thousands of them reflecting sunlight, then that starts to change the way the night sky looks and we're right on the threshold of that," Lawler said.
Lawler said the number of low-flying satellites has "increased dramatically" in the last year, "almost entirely due to Starlink launches."
Lawler, who studies Kuiper Belt objects such as the planet Pluto, said these objects are 15 million times fainter than the Starlink satellites, hampering hers and other astronomers' work.
"They're launching more satellites every two to three weeks [in] batches of 60, so they want to get to 42,000 satellites when currently there's only a few thousand," she said.
"So this will very much change the way the night sky looks."
According to a study published in March, researchers with the Royal Astronomical Society found that the number of objects orbiting Earth, including satellites and space debris, could elevate the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10 per cent above natural light levels across the majority of planet.
The study reported that this would exceed a threshold that astronomers set more than 40 years ago for considering a location "light polluted."
A 2016 study also reported that 80 per cent of North Americans and 60 per cent of Europeans can no longer see the glowing band of the Milky Way because of the impact of artificial lighting.
Lawler acknowledged that there are "significant benefits" to these satellites, including internet access for those in remote communities. However, she said people in remote areas also have a "very good view of the night sky," and will have to give that up in return.
To help tackle the issue and protect the night sky, Lawler says there needs to be international regulation of space.
"We need to recognize that low Earth orbit is an environment that's intimately connected to our atmosphere, so that has to happen at the international level," Lawler said.
Lawler said Canada can also aid in reducing light pollution by implementing regulations that require communication services to take into account the negative impacts of satellites.
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
A 4.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded west of Vancouver Island early Friday morning.
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.